Captain's condolences on Italy shipwreck anniversary

The Costa Concordia's captain expressed his condolences but blamed his crew for the cruise ship crash in an interview out Sunday on the one-year anniversary of the disaster in which 32 people died. Francesco Schettino, who is accused by prosecutors of causing the shipwreck with reckless seamanship and then abandoning the ship before all the 4,229 passengers and crew had evacuated, defended himself in the interview shown on Raiuno public television. "If we had not turned, we would not have hit anything," Schettino said, repeating a previous accusation made against the ship's Indonesian helmsman Jacob Rusli Bin who he said had misunderstood his steering orders given in English. "If the helmsman had understood correctly, the ship would have sailed past and nothing would have happened," Schettino said in the interview. Schettino is one of 10 people who have been investigated although there have been no formal charges. He has been confined to his hometown of Meta on the Amalfi Coast in southern Italy. "From last January 13 and for the rest of my life I will always have something in my heart that will tie me to that event and to the families of the victims in a very personal way," the captain said. "I join in the suffering of all the victims, of the relatives of the victims," he said. The infamous captain -- who has been dubbed "Captain Coward" by the tabloids -- also remembered the moment he realised his ship was about to crash. "When I went to the large window on the deck, I saw the mountain in front of me. We were going directly into the mountain!" he said. "The person in charge of the radar was supposed to say that we had land in front of us. I was told that we were fine," he said. "I took the blame because I followed the indications I was given."